Super Mario 3D World’s Double Cherry Powerup Came From A Mistake

Super Mario 3D World has a new powerup called the Double Cherry, which creates clones of Mario and co. if they acquire one, allowing you to control multiple versions of your character. And while the powerup is called “Double Cherry,” trailers for the game has shown up to eight Marios being controlled by a single player using multiple Double Cherries.

Interestingly, the Double Cherry powerup came about as the result of a mistake on the part of member of the game’s development team, Nintendo have shared in an Iwata Asks interview.

When asked how the clone mechanic came about, director Kenta Motokura replied, “Well actually…we discovered that when a staff member made a mistake with the placement tool and put in two player Marios.” He added, “When we saw that, we thought it was great! So we went ahead and put that in the game.”

On the subject of the development team, co-director Koichi Hayashida reveals that about 100 people worked on Super Mario 3D World.

“At first, about 40 to 50, but there were about 100 in the end,” Hayashida shared, adding that this is partly why the number of ideas suggested by the development team for the game was so high. “When that many people threw out ideas, there was about three times more than ever before.”

I think this in particular shows something more, on top of that: flexibility.
Some companies wouldn’t let crazy ideas like this be implemented into a product and would stick to their plans.
Allowing new ideas to flourish is part of what makes games entretaining :)
This game didn’t even look interesting until all these crazy new things were announced. Kudos to Nintendo!

Sperium3000

This reminds me of how possessing rats in Dishonored was a mistake in programming, but when they saw what the testers were doing with it, they kept it in the final product.

GH56734

Miyamoto was disappointed with Zelda II because he didn’t get to do something new other than what’s on paper as plans. It seems it’s more of the rule than the exception there to go crazy with the development.

the problem with implementation of new ideas are the balancing and the fact that the development time must be reestimated and rescheduled to add the random ideas. on a business perspective its bad since the games are being pushed back further than planned~ BUT… if it helps the game be more fun and inovative? why not?

J_Joestar

Like combos in Fighting games. unintended exploit that evolved into a key game mechanic.

When you look at it now it looks like it’s own thing, it feels like it belongs side Galaxy, but it will never break away from the idea that it is a sequel to a handheld game.

Someone at Nintendo in charge of brand management really needs to be taken to task.

Wii U
New Super Mario Brothers U
Super Mario 3D World

are all horrible horrible titles and they are all the three major names that Nintendo needed to knock out of the park.

3PointDecoupage

I agree considering I thought this game was a port until recently

JustThisOne

I get that it’s supposed to be a step up from Super Mario 3D Land, but I do admit that the naming conventions of all the recent Mario titles are confusing.

GH56734

Some modders could already do it with Super Mario Galaxy with 4 Marios, even though it’s obvious Nintendo thought of that beforehand, since they came up with the Cosmic Clones. They are even doing a split-screen two player mod based on the fragments from the Cherry powerup left by Nintendo in SMG. (I’m amazed how they had unique programming for when two Marios collide, even though this idea wasn’t even used)

Nintendo is just that awesome to run with a glitch idea and turn it to a gameplay element: the multiple coin block in SMB, the spin attack in Zelda III that was a glitch in the first game, spare ROM image used for a second quest, rewarding sequence breaking in Metroid, the Bomb Arrow in Link Awakening and Twilight Princess…

Not to mention one of very reasons why Pokemon got popular in japan in the first place: Mew rumors.
It was added incredibly late in development and was only found through a bug and rumors spread. Instead of treating it as a prank or joke they took it to the next level as an event Pokemon and popularity sky rocketted.